Archie Ryan is now 5th overall at the Junior Tour of Wales with one stage remaining. He had been given the wrong time at the end of stage 2 and is now Ireland's best placed rider.
Archie Ryan was Ireland’s best-placed rider going into the final day of the Junior Tour of Wales on Monday.
He was 5th overall after being upgraded when a mix-up with the results on Saturday’s stage 2 was corrected.
Ryan was in a group sprinting for 4th behind a leading trio on the second stage. But he was mistakenly placed in the next group in the results.
When the error was corrected he was upgraded from 11th to 5th overall. He was still in that position after Sunday’s racing, some 32 seconds down on the yellow jersey.
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It was intended that yesterday would be a split stage. But the morning stage was cancelled because torrential rain had left dangerous levels of surface water on the course.
And with the racing set to unfold over 11 laps off a 3km circuit, the excess water was deemed too dangerous for the race format.
That meant the riders switched their attention to later in the day; a 92km stage from Abergavenny to Hardwick awaiting the field. And during that stage two Irish riders shot up the road.
National TT champion Ben Healy (Zappi Racing) and international rider Liam Curley (NRPR-Chill Insurance) were joined by Oliver Knight (Team Corley Cycles) in the breakaway.
They pulled out a lead of around one minute, with Healy taking two sprint primes on offer; after 43km and 68km.
UK rider Oliver Knight leads the breakaway from Ireland's Ben Healy and Liam Curley. Archie Ryan is very well placed overall (Photo: Huw Fairclough)
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However, Healy and Curley were reabsorbed yesterday when the chase behind cranked up in the final 20km. Riders began jumping off the front of the bunch in pursuit of the three leaders.
Those attacks brought the peloton closer to the trio up front and they were eventually caught.
In the final few kilometres Samuel Watson (PH-MAS-Paul Milnes Cycles) attacked solo and held on to win by 12 seconds from the main field.
The result meant there was no major change in the overall. The winner of Friday’s stage1 TT, Leo Hayter of Londres VC, retained the yellow jersey.
During yesterday’s stage a number of Irish riders were off the front including Conor Gallagher (NRPT-Chill Insurance), Michael McGlynn (Omagh Wheelers) and PJ Doogan (Cycling Ulster).
Archie Ryan was 9th in the stage 1 TT on Friday and finished in the chase group on Saturday’s stage 2.
He was 5th overall at 32 seconds and just eight seconds off 3rd place going into the UK Bank Holiday Monday final stage; some 94km finishing up Tumble Mountain.
Irish riders impressing
Best of the Irish yesterday was PJ Doogan, placing 10th on the stage. After Ryan, next best Irish rider overall is Adam Ward, also riding for Cycling Ulster.
Ward was in the three-man breakaway on stage 2 and won the stage. He was 12th overall going into Monday’s final stage; at 50 seconds.
Healy is next of the Irish; in 18th place at 1:07. He was born in the UK and is based there but recently declared for Ireland.
Breandán Flanagan (Cycling Ulster) is 27th overall; some 1:37 down on leader Hayter.
Aaron Doherty (NRPT-Chill Insurance) was in the stage 2 winning break with Ward. He took 3rd on the day. He was in 43rd overall, at 2:32, going into the last stage.
Yesterday afternoon's stage 4 results are available by following this link. And the general classification after stage 4 can be viewed here.
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